Israel-Hamas Agree on Four-day Ceasefire, 50 Hostages to Go Free
Editor
22 November 2023 22:32 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Gaza - Israel and Hamas agreed on Wednesday, Nov. 22, to a ceasefire in Gaza for at least four days, to let in aid and release at least 50 hostages captured by militants in exchange for at least 150 Palestinians jailed in Israel.
The first truce in a brutal nearly seven-week-old aggression, reached after mediation by Qatar, was hailed around the world as a sign of progress that could ease the suffering of Gaza's civilians and bring more Israeli hostages home.
Israel said the ceasefire could be extended further if more hostages were freed, and a Palestinian source said as many as 100 hostages in total could be released by the end of the month.
Hamas and allied groups captured around 240 hostages when gunmen rampaged through southern Israeli towns on Oct. 7. Previously, Hamas had released just four.
The truce was not expected to begin until Thursday morning, and the start time had yet to be officially announced as of Wednesday afternoon.
A statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office on Tuesday night said 50 women and children would be released over four days at a rate of at least 10 per day. Beyond that, the truce could be extended day by day, as long as an additional ten hostages were freed per day.
Israel's justice ministry published a list of 300 names of Palestinian prisoners who could be freed.
"Israel's government is committed to returning all the hostages home. Tonight, it approved the proposed deal as a first stage to achieving this goal," said the government statement.
Hamas said the initial 50 hostages would be released in exchange for 150 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli jails. Hundreds of trucks of humanitarian, medical, and fuel supplies would enter Gaza, while Israel would halt all air sorties over southern Gaza and maintain a daily six-hour daytime no-fly window in the north, it said.
The Palestinian source said the initial 50 hostages set to be freed would be followed by another 50, in return for a further 150 Palestinian prisoners: "The second batch will follow the first batch. They would need four or five days to organize."
Israel has placed Gaza under siege and relentless bombardment since the Hamas attack, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, more than 14,000 Gazans have been killed, around 40% of them children, according to medical officials in the Hamas-ruled territory.
Qatar's chief negotiator in ceasefire talks, Minister of State at the Foreign Ministry Mohammed Al-Khulaifi, told Reuters the truce meant there would be "no attack whatsoever. No military movements, no expansion, nothing".
Qatar hopes the deal "will be a seed to a bigger agreement and a permanent cease of fire. And that's our intention," he said.
Pending the start of the truce there was no let-up in fighting. As morning broke, smoke from explosions could be seen rising above northern Gaza in live Reuters video from across the fence.
Riyad al-Maliki, foreign minister of the Palestinian Authority government based in the West Bank, said an entire extended family had been killed on Wednesday in Jabalia on Gaza's northern edge.
"Only this morning, from the Qadoura family in Jabalia, 52 people have been wiped out completely, killed," he said. "I have the list of the names, 52 of them, were wiped out completely from grandfather to grandchildren."
Israel's military released footage of soldiers shooting in narrow alleyways and said it had carried out airstrikes. Its "forces continue to operate within the Strip's territory to destroy terrorist infrastructure, eliminate terrorists and locate weaponry", it said.
An Egyptian security source said mediators sought a start time of 10:00 a.m. on Thursday for the truce, though this was still awaiting confirmation from the Israelis, with Hamas seeking a few hours from the start to begin freeing hostages. A spokesperson for Israel’s Defence Ministry said the truce would likely take hold "sometime tomorrow".
